The Story Behind the Flag
Mélanie Kamar
Cover photo of R1549/39/383/383/Jacket3
The League of Nations: mere failure or pioneer?
Today, most would say the former. But is that a fitting description? The League of Nations, the first intergovernmental organization of its kind, was established to maintain peace and foster international cooperation. It was not only the steppingstone for international service, but the root of it. And yet, it was riddled with challenges and obstacles that stood in the way of its mission. Case in point: the story of a flag that was never to be.
The League long wanted to have a flag to act as a visible sign of authority in its missions. They pictured it waving proudly above the High Commissioner’s Office in the Free City of Danzig, or on ships repatriating prisoners of war. But Member States were not on board. They worried that a flag, a symbol of statehood, could lead to the League becoming a supranational organization garnering international recognition of a superior authority. As a temporary solution, and over the course of the League’s missions, varying flags were used in several contexts (e.g. in Leticia during the dispute between Colombia and Peru).
Pacifist Organizations under the banner of the League of Nations Union (LNU) –and even part of the general public! —were also in favor of a flag for the League of Nations, but for other reasons. In the correspondence sent to the League of Nations (by then, based in Geneva), they argued that the flag would represent “a visible sign of inward unity” and a form of “international patriotism”. In other words, it would be a symbol of world peace and unity. And so, since the League of Nations’ beginning in 1920, spontaneous submissions of flag designs were sent only to be met with a standard rejection letter.
Spontaneous submissions of flag designs by the general public to the League of Nations
Nearly a decade later in 1929, the LNU took matters into their own hands and launched the International Contest for Flag Design Submissions. The LNU received many submissions but did not offer any of them the first place. Instead, two second-place winners were chosen but their win was only a symbolic one. Ultimately, and due to the Member States’ strong opposition, the League of Nations did not officially adopt a flag and the flag designs did not see the light of day at the international organization.
Some of the flag designs sent to the LNU for the International Contest for Flag Design Submissions
The two second place winners of the LNU International Contest for Flag Design Submissions
A quick visit to the League of Nations Wikipedia page will show the “semi-official flag”. It is composed of two five-pointed stars within a blue pentagon and the organization’s name written in blue in both English at the top (League of Nations) and French at the bottom (Société des Nations). It was designed to symbolize five continents and racial unity. This flag is often mistaken for being the official one, probably because it was flown on the League of Nations Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940.
Former UNOG Director-General Michael Møller carrying the "unofficial" League of Nations Flag
The flag could have been well received and used to represent a cooperative association of sovereign states as opposed to an entity in and of itself. The LNU, pacifist groups and a part of the public opinion kept pushing for the adoption of a flag to instill a feeling of world unity, but to no avail.
Now, if adopting a flag was so controversial, imagine how difficult it was for the League to fulfill its mission.
Sources:
R1549/39/383/383/Jacket1
R1549/39/383/383/Jacket2
R1549/39/383/383/Jacket3
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